Safe at Last (Slow Burn #3) (38 page)

“Did you ever give any of those women your heart?” she asked softly.

“No,” he said emphatically, his tone harsher than he intended. God, to even think for a moment that any other woman than Gracie had ever held a piece of his heart. “Never.”

She smiled and then leaned up until she was straining to reach his height and gently wiped the wet trail from his cheek. He wrapped his arms around her, gathering her tightly against him, lifting so she wasn’t at such a height disadvantage.

“Just like always,” she said, wrapping her arms loosely around his neck. “You holding me up. Never letting me fall. Always protecting me from the world.”

“Forever,” he vowed, staring directly into her eyes, allowing her to see, to feel the sincerity of his promise.

She lovingly cupped his jaw and stared back at him, so much love shining in her warm brown eyes that it nearly undid him.

“You never gave your heart to another woman but me,” she said, her eyes growing as serious as her tone. “You never gave them a part of your soul as you’ve done with me.”

“Not just a
part
,” he said adamantly. “All of it, Gracie. My heart, soul, body and mind. I never gave to anyone else what was yours to keep.”

“Then I fail to see how you broke your promise to me.”

For a moment he couldn’t even breathe. His vision blurred and he pulled her even closer so his face was buried in her hair and her head lay against his cheek. He inhaled her sweet scent and held it for as long as he could before allowing it to escape his body.

“I love you,” he said, his voice breaking up under the weight of so much emotion. “I’ll never love anyone else. It’s always been you. Thank God you found your way back to me. Don’t ever leave me, Gracie. I can’t live without you. I’m not whole without you. The last twelve years have been so empty. I don’t ever want to have to live that way again.”

She turned her face so that her lips met the corner of his mouth.

“I love you too, Zack. And I’ll never leave you again.”

Slowly, Zack walked toward the bed, carrying Gracie molded to his body. When he got to the edge, he very carefully lowered her to the mattress. He straightened, staring down transfixed by the sight of her.

Her hair was spread out and disheveled looking. Her cheeks were pink and flushed with the same nervousness that assailed him. Her nipples puckered and strained against the confining material of her gown.

Unable to resist such delicious temptation, he lowered his head to where the neckline plunged to her navel and he pressed his lips over the shallow indention, fully intending to kiss his way up her entire body. No way he was rushing this. It would take all night and he was going to enjoy every single minute.

“I’m scared,” she said in a quivering voice.

He immediately raised his head to meet her eyes. And then he lowered his body so he lay against her side, his leg going over the tops of hers possessively. But at the same time, he made sure he wasn’t making her uncomfortable.

“What are you scared of, baby?”

She swallowed hard and then she turned her head to the side so she met his gaze.

“I don’t know what to do,” she admitted. “I’ve never . . . I mean not willingly.”

She promptly closed her eyes, but not before Zack saw the shame darken the brown depths. He had to work very hard to control the rage building inside him. This was too important for him to fuck up. He had to handle her very gently.

“Of course you haven’t,” he said. “But neither have I, Gracie. I’ve never made love to a woman in my life. How could I have when I’m only in love with you?”

She blinked and swallowed again and he touched his finger to her cheek, running it over her silky skin.

“I’m scared too,” he admitted. “Nothing has ever been more important than this night, this moment. I don’t want to hurt you or scare you or go to fast. In fact . . .”

He leaned down to kiss her lips before continuing his thought.

“No one says we have to make love tonight,” he whispered. “We have all the time in the world. The rest of our lives. I would be the happiest man in the world just to get to hold you in my arms while you sleep and know that you’re finally mine. That you wear my ring and bear my last name.”

Gracie pushed herself up and over Zack, her eyes blazing in the low light cast by the bedside lamp. “No,” she said fiercely. Her hand slid over his chest until it rested just above his heart. There was sorrow in her eyes, but also determination. “I won’t let them take tonight from me. I won’t!”

Tears welled in her eyes and she leaned down so her forehead rested against his. Their lips hovered so close that their breaths mingled.

“I’m not afraid of you,” she said. “Never of you, Zack. I know you won’t hurt me. I’ve waited for this moment for twelve years.”

The last words were nearly cut off as she choked them out. He cupped the side of her face with his hand, drawing her down so their lips met. He stroked her jaw as they kissed lightly, the only sound coming from the soft smooching.

“I’m only afraid because I don’t know what to do,” she whispered against his lips. “I want to please you, but I don’t know how. I want this night so much that I’m afraid of messing it all up and making us both miserable.”

Zack wrapped his arms around her and rolled until he was atop her, though he made sure to prevent his full weight from crushing her. He stared at her with eyes that surely blazed as hers had just moments before.

“You will never disappoint me. You will never
not
please me. It’s impossible, Gracie. You married me today. You’re wearing my ring. You’ve taken my name. I couldn’t be any happier than I am right now and I don’t give a damn if we make love or not. Just having you here, with me, in my arms is enough. It will always be enough.”

“And if I
want
you to make love to me?” she whispered.

Savage satisfaction such as he’d never known gripped him.

“Then I’ll make love to you,” he said in a low growl.

“Please,” she said sweetly. “Make love to me, Zack. We’ve both waited so very long for this.”

He fused his mouth to hers, cutting off anything further she might say. This time he allowed his restraint to slip and he put every ounce of feeling, of love, into his kiss.

Their tongues met and slid hotly over each other. He tasted her, devoured her, then went back for more.

He let one hand fall gently down the side of her neck and to her shoulder where his fingers caught on the thin string holding her gown up. With infinite care, he pulled it over her shoulder and down her bare arm.

Goose bumps danced beneath his touch. She shivered even as she deepened their kiss and let out a low moan of desire—of need. Need that matched his own desperate desire for her, for this. For him to finally,
finally
make her his.

“Don’t let me hurt you,” he ground out as he slid her gown further down her body.

“You won’t,” she denied.

God, she was so beautiful. So perfectly formed. He paused when the gown was at her waist to stare at the supple curves of her breasts. Then, unable to wait a second longer, he lowered his mouth to taste them.

She gasped and arched upward when he sucked one turgid peak between his teeth. He licked and sucked until she was writhing beneath him. Then he turned his attention to the other, coaxing it to rigidity like he had done to the first.

Her hands flew over his arms, his shoulders, his back, up and down. When he hit a particularly sensitive spot, her hands would still and her fingers would dig into his flesh as if the pleasure was nearly unbearable. It certainly was for him.

He ached to slide into her welcoming body. His dick had never ached so bad in his life. Never had he wanted someone with the desperation he wanted Gracie. His Gracie. But he forced himself to go slowly, not wanting the moment over too soon. Instead he stoked and built the fire burning between them until it was an inferno of desire and need consuming them both.

He let out a groan when her mouth slid hotly over his neck and then up to his ear where she nibbled and teased. He was panting, so desperate was he for breath. But she did that to him. All he had to do was look at her and he was breathless. And he knew that would never change.

His mouth covered every inch of her skin, from head to her pretty pink toes. And just as he’d fantasized, he kissed every single toe.

After the last toe, he nudged her legs farther apart and began kissing his way up the inside of her leg, pausing when he got to the sensitive skin around her knee. He smiled when she flinched. Her knees were definitely her weakness.

But he was determined to find new weaknesses. New places he could drive her mindless with pleasure. She tensed when his mouth traveled up the inside of her thigh. Her fingers slid through his hair and curled just as he placed a tender kiss on her soft mound.

With a gentle touch, he parted the ultra soft lips between her legs and exposed her satiny opening and the tiny, pulsing center of her pleasure.

He laved his tongue over her clit first, stroking, enjoying each and every sigh of pleasure wrung from her. Then he grew bolder, sucking ever so gently until her hips bucked upward to meet his demands.

He was shaking with so much pent up need as he eased one finger inside her opening. The velvet walls closed around the tip, sucking him further inside and his eyes nearly rolled to the back of his head as he imagined his aching erection bathed in such plushness.

Gracie’s legs trembled and shook. Her entire body was shaking. Her eyes burned brightly when he lifted his head to meet her gaze. The question was unspoken and yet she responded by nodding. Then as if to further convince him she put both hands on his shoulders.

“Please, Zack,” she begged softly. “Please, I need you.”

The hell she’d ever beg for anything he could give her.

He rose up and settled himself between her splayed thighs and he stared down at the beautiful feast of naked woman spread out before him.

“I’ll never ask for another thing as long as I live,” he said in a hoarse voice. “All I ever wanted was you.”

A tear slid from the corner of Gracie’s eye and over her temple to disappear into her hair.

Using every ounce of restraint he owned, he positioned himself at the mouth of her sweet, silken dampness and nudged forward, just enough that the head of his dick was bathed in her heat.

He closed his eyes and let out an agonized cry, one that sounded like pain but was the most exquisite of pleasures he’d ever experienced in his life.

Gracie’s hands curled around his shoulders, her fingernails digging into his skin, urging him forward. And he needed no further urging.

He pushed, inch by delicious inch, carefully studying her for any sign of pain or discomfort. Her eyes widened as he gained depth, but they were glazed with pleasure and so he pressed on.

His skin was on fire. The flames licked over him, threatening to utterly consume him and push him over the edge. He could feel the sweat on his forehead from the toll of restraining himself.

“Zack, I’m okay,” she whispered close to his ear. “You aren’t hurting me. Let go now. Love me.”

Her sweetly worded plea snapped the last strings of control he had in place. With a harsh groan, he wrapped his arms around her and plunged the remaining distance, completely uniting them as one.

Her taste was on his tongue as her heat enveloped him and pulled him in, again and again. Her legs came up and wrapped around the backs of his thighs and she arched upward to meet every thrust.

Then her eyes popped open and her fingernails dug into his skin with enough force to break it. “Oh God, Zack. Don’t stop. Please don’t stop!”

It was the final push he needed. With a roar he began to drive into her, over and over, deeper, wetter, harder.

Their hips met, their bodies jostling with the force of each of his plunges.

Gracie’s mouth opened in a soundless cry and her eyes went cloudy as if she lost all awareness of time and place. He felt her spasm and tighten around his erection and he felt the sudden explosion of wetness, signaling her orgasm.

It was the catalyst for his own.

Bathed in her silken depths, and with a sense of homecoming he’d never felt before, he let go. Her name on his lips, his whispered “I love you” over and over, he poured himself into her.

He buried his face against her neck, felt his hot tears against her skin. He shuddered one last time and then finally went limp against her. When he could see and think straight again, he was aware of being sprawled across her soft body and of her stroking his back with her hands, her cheek resting atop his head.

When he would have moved so his weight wasn’t crushing her, she protested and held on.

“No, I like you there,” she murmured. “Stay.”

And so he stayed.

Long after the last sighs and sounds of pleasure, they lay entwined, two lovers who’d been separated far too long. Two lovers who’d finally found their way back to one another and experienced the sweetest homecoming one could ever ask for.

Perhaps she thought he was asleep or maybe she intended him to hear. Zack couldn’t be certain. But as she stroked her fingers through his hair, her soft whisper fell on his ears.

“I’ll never let you go again.”

He smiled as her solemn vow found its way to his very soul.

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